Featured Domains

Company wants to fix error in one of its new top level domain applications.

Verisign has responded to Domain Name Wire’s inquiry regarding an error in its application for a Hebrew internationalized domain name (IDN) for a transliteration of .com:

Verisign is aware of the administrative error that resulted in the inclusion of a variant character in the Verisign Sàrl application for the Hebrew transliteration of .com and is working with ICANN to address the error.

ICANN is currently working on guidelines for when and how a new TLD applicant can change its final application.

I’m currently working to fix a UTF8 problem on Domain Name Wire. When that’s finished I’ll post thoughts from the IDN community about VeriSign’s selection of .com and .net transliterations.

New York City event will educate about Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).

Few topics have received greater attention this year than IDNs. So it’s fitting that the first ever “IDN Event and Auction” will take place October 30, 2010 at the Haru Restaurant in New York City at 7 pm. The event is organized by IDNTools and will be sponsored by Register.com, Moniker and SnapNames.

The goal of the event is to educate domain registrants about IDNs, their value proposition, how to register them, the value of developing IDNs, the importance of connecting with local audiences, and we will also hold an IDN auction.

[This article explores the latest with IDN ccTLDs such as .Ñ€Ñ„ and .æ—¥æœ¬. Aaron Krawitz of IDNBlog and Gary Males of IDNDemystified co-own IDNDroplist, IDNTools and IDNNewsletter. Patrick Carleton is Executive Director of Associated Cities. -Andrew]

Change is afoot in the world of IDN ccTLDs.

Just a few days ago, we learned that the registry, JPRS, was the only one to apply to manage the .æ—¥æœ¬ IDN ccTLD (meaning “.Japanâ€ in Japanese). JPRS is the current .JP registry and has previously spoke out in favor of aliasing or unlocking .JP in an IDN equivalent. As such, the practical implication of the above application is that we will likely soon see owners of IDN.JP domains owning IDN.æ—¥æœ¬ names as well.

Hiro Hotta the Director of Corporate Planning at JPRS previously stated: “In my opinion, the registrant of IDN.jp should automatically have the right to register IDN.æ—¥æœ¬ . . . [i]t is relatively easy for [the] .JP registry (JPRS) to implement this aliasing.â€

Meanwhile, the release of .Ñ€Ñ„ IDN ccTLD (meaning “.RFâ€ in Russian) is on track. The sunrise period is currently open to trademark holders, with a number of .Ñ€Ñ„ sites already having gone live, and landrush is to follow this fall.

Awareness

There are several material implications of the IDN ccTLD progress, the first of which is greater awareness of IDNs in general. As IDNs are in the news on a daily basis, investors, developers and end-users are realizing that IDN.com domains exist now, IDN.IDN-ccTLD names will exist soon and these foreign language domains are great platforms to use in order to engage users in their native languages.

Extension Question

Though the publicity of IDN ccTLDs are having a positive effect on the awareness and value of IDN.com names, such new ccTLDs also pose a competitive threat. In the world of IDNs, to many it seems like buying an IDN.com is the intuitive choice as .COM is already a global brand. However, in many markets, new IDN ccTLDs will be available long before an internationalized IDN.com-in-IDN domain will be available, and such IDN ccTLDs will at times have the advantage of being the first IDN.IDN in a certain region.

Consequently, it is anyone’s guess as to whether the new IDN ccTLDs, ASCII .COM, or the future IDN .COM alias becomes the extension of choice for IDNs in a given country and the prudent investor should buy both.

Opportunities Overlooked

Lastly, amidst the blockbuster releases of IDN ccTLDs for Japan and Russia, smaller countries tend to get overlooked even though they too are releasing IDN ccTLDs. IDN opportunities will surely abound in these smaller markets as well.